Yesterday, in Kailua-Kona, over 500 people came together to support the Global March against Monsanto…! We had members of; Idle No More, GMO~Free Big Island, Occupy Hilo and Kona, Veterans For Peace, and, various other local community groups, all coming together…! We all enjoyed the live entertainment, free food(all organic and vegan), the excellent lecturers, the Seed Bank swaps(w/many starters), the Poi pounders, and, the Kava…!

Idle No More has rapidly spread from Southcentral Canada, into the U.S. upper midwest, the U.S. side of the St. Lawrence river valley, to the Pacific Northwest south of British Columbia, and into other countries with subjugated indigenous populations. Begun less than two months ago, it is spreading like the Ghost Dance movement on steroids. I’ve heard it referred to locally as “Re-Occupy Wounded Knee,” which might not be fair, as that de-Canada-izes the movement’s origin.

We have entered an age of protest. Social media tools allow new ways to mobilize activists into public and private spaces and also provide new avenues for amplifying their actions. The Internet, when used properly, can drive activists to an action — or a worldwide coalition of actions — and then make sure thousands more people see and hear about them after. Using simple tools like hashtags, we can monitor the response to actions in real time in a way never possible before.